Bentley Ball

Bentley Ball (born before 1919 in Virginia ; died after 1919) was an American singer who performed mainly at various colleges. In 1919 he was the first artist to publish commercial recordings of traditional cowboy songs .

Life

Apart from the fact that he was born in Virginia , little is known about Bentley Ball's life . The only thing that is certain is that he worked full-time for the "Underwood Typewriter Company" as a typewriter representative. He also gave courses in typing, which he loosened up with musical performances with singing and guitar. His repertoire mainly included patriotic songs, minstrels and spirituals , but also traditional folk songs from the Appalachians , as well as some cowboy titles.

Jesse James (1919)

In his spare time he also gave concerts, most of them at various colleges on the American east coast. In 1918 and 1919 he recorded a total of 14 songs for Columbia Records , which were advertised in the label's catalog as "probably the most authentic collection of genuine American Folk Songs ever collected" . These recordings also included the cowboy titles Jesse James and The Dying Cowboy , also known as Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie . These are considered to be the first commercial recordings of the traditional songs, which deal with the life of American cowboys and from which the genre of western music would later develop.

legacy

Ball's recordings weren't very successful and were quickly forgotten. That is why singers like Carl T. Sprague , who had the first hit with a cowboy title, or Jules Verne Allen , "The Original Singing Cowboy" are often named as the first representatives of the genre. However, due to their thematic diversity, his recordings are of great interest to historians and have been repeatedly published on various samplers, including by the Smithsonian Institution .

Ball is interesting for fans of the singing cowboys because of his pioneering status, but he is not considered a singing cowboy himself. Some of his recordings differ considerably from other recordings from the early days of the genre. While the latter placed emphasis on - real or at least pretended - authenticity, Ball sings in an articulate way that is more reminiscent of a classical concert than of a cattle drive. He is also accompanied on these recordings on the piano, while otherwise only instruments were used that could be transported by horse and covered wagon. Ball is therefore seen rather as an example of the blending influences of Eastern and Western music, which were often reflected in so-called college ballad recitals in the 1920s .

literature

• Mark Fenster: Preparing the Audience, Informing the Performers: John A. Lomax and Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads . In: American Music . 1989, No. 3, pp. 260-277.
• Paul F. Wells: Roots and Revival: Two Recorded Perspectives of American Folk Music . In: The Musical Quarterly . 1994, No. 2, pp. 246-254.
• Norm Cohen: Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong . University of Illinois Press, Chicago 2000, p. 109, ISBN 978-0252068812 .
• Douglas B. Green: Singing in the Saddle: The History of the Singing Cowboy . Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville 2002, p. 22, ISBN 0-8265-1412-X .
• Bill C. Malone: Country Music, USA . University of Texas Press, Austin 2002, p. 139, ISBN 0-292-75262-8 .
• Bruce Molsky Online ( November 29, 2010 memento on the Internet Archive ), see section “Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie”.